Rachel Stern

This is a photograph of my mother taken on the day we put our dog to sleep. He was only one year old and totally healthy, but our neighbor kept provoking him until he would bite her. She would then report the incidents to the police. It was mandated that our dog was to be put to sleep. My mother was devastated and felt she was responsible for his death. I went with her to the hospital and photographed the whole process.

A series of photographs of life leaving a young body, of a body turning into a corpse—what’s strange is there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between life and death. We passed a dock on the way home and my mother abruptly pulled over the car. We parked and almost without hesitation she ran down the pier and jumped into the water. This is her emerging.